Welcome to Techie Tuesday here at More Cowbell! This is the day each week when I unleash my inner geek and we talk about some groovy piece of technology or a technical point of writing.

You can probably tell from today’s title that there have been lots of changes in Triberr lately. I’ve been hearing a lot of cursing in my tribes over the last few weeks as things moved around. I’ll even admit to cursing a few times myself.

But here’s what I know about Triberr:

Even with all the software updates, Triberr still saves me a TON of time.

I seriously missed it when Triberr was down for the big server move.

Dan Cristo and Dino Dogan, the founders of Triberr, work their butts off to accommodate the bloggers who use Triberr. I tip my hat to them and their talent every day – they are the social media equivalent of Indie authors. TWO of them run it all. Whoa.

Triberr shares should NEVER be substituted for the “social” in social media.

If you’re new here, this post is number six in a series of posts. Here’s what you missed:

Even though many things have shifted around in the Triberr window lately, all but three of the things I love are back.

What’s still missing?

We’re still missing the LinkedIn button on the Share bar (but Dino assured me it will return – it was an “oops”).

I miss being able to see ALL of my Tribal Stream in one window. Currently, you can only see 10 posts.

I loved the feature that showed how many hits I got for each person’s post and vice-versa. With the switch to Google’s link shortener, this is no longer possible. I still miss the feature though. 🙂

That being said, 90% of the new changes rock!

Just in case you’re not sure what those changes are, I’ve detailed them below.

What’s new in Triberr?

The biggest changes are in the layout. Let’s go through the screen together.

The Home Screen

When I hit the Home button in my top navigation bar, my window looks like this:

Here’s what moved:

All the navigation on the top bar is now in one spot. Your Tribes button has been shifted to the right (over by Home), which I think was a smart move. The Bonfires button (where you find people and info) is also over there.

The Member Search is now inside your Home screen, right above the Tribal Stream. It used to be in the middle of the toolbar at the top and people missed it all the time. (Refer to Part 4 of this series for everything you need to know about Invites.)

Note that helpful links and groovy classes have been moved to the upper right, just under your name, in the Triberr window. If you click on your name, you still get to your Triberr Settings, which are all exactly the same.

The Tribal Stream is different enough that it gets it’s own section!

The Tribal Stream

There are a ton of new features in the Tribal Stream area and it took some serious programming crowbars to wedge it all in. Here’s a picture of the new window with an explanation of what’s changed.

As you can see, the Share bar moved to the right of the post – it used to be underneath (where you see all those pictures of tribemates).

You can now see how many people tweeted your post (note the check mark and number above?) and who they are at a glance.

The thumbs up buttons to give karma are back! They were missing for a few days and boy did we all miss them. Everyone yelled at poor Dino…it was sad.

Dan and Dino forgot the LinkedIn share button, but it will be back soon.

The Edit button is just above the photos of your tweeting tribemates. Do you see it? You click there now, instead of the black screw/wheel-looking thing from the old window. I LOVE that you can see exactly how your tweet will look now. (Note: Part 3 of this Triberr series tells you all you need to know about Rocking Your Tribal Stream.)

The only other area of the Tribal Stream area that has changed is at the very top:

We already mentioned that the Member Search moved down here. This is where search to see if a person’s already on Triberr. Refer to Part 4 for why it matters.

The “Clear Out Stream” button is much easier to see now. Suppose you’re out of town for a week and it’s simply too daunting to go back through your queue…hit this button and start over.

Show/Hide comments is AWESOME! If you have a self-hosted WordPress site, there is a plug-in available to allow people to comment and read your post right in Triberr. The show/hide comments button allows those with the plug-in (or curiosity) to see all the comments, and those without to hide them. Nifty!

Everything else is pretty much the same in this area, from what I’ve seen.

This brings me to my last point…

Triberr is about consolidating all your social media into one place to save time.

Here is what Triberr is NOT about:

1. Turning us into an endless source of links with no interaction.

From a Twitter follower sense, it is interaction that will get you followed every time. People want connection. They want to TALK to you and form a relationship. That is what the #myWANA and #ROW80 groups are all about on Twitter and Facebook. Yes, we want to support our peeps, but we also want to chat them up.

Click the post title to GO to your tribemates’ blogs and comment or, if you have the plug-in, people can comment right in Triberr.

I know that every time we all turn around there is the next shiny object, beckoning us away from the “have to’s” in our lives. I can only tell you that Triberr is not that shiny thing.

On a normal day, I spend about 15 minutes in the program, and it saves me at least an hour simply by putting everything into one spot. I comment on 30-40% more posts than I used to with all that extra time.

I’ve seen a few people get overwhelmed by Triberr and it’s nearly always a training issue. I can only ask you to reach out – to me or to the Triberr guys (they can be found on Twitter at @Triberr). There is training available to you – some of it is even free. 🙂

What has your experience with Triberr been? Do you love it or hate it (or are you pretty much ambivalent)? Are there features that you miss from earlier releases? Are there things you wish “the Triberr Guys” would add? Enquiring minds LOVE to know these things here at More Cowbell!

Jenny

PRIZE ANNOUNCEMENT:
I realized that I had a Blonde Moment and forgot to list the winners from my Life List Club Milestone Party a few weeks back! I’m SO sorry for the delay…CONGRATULATIONS, you two!

Comment Winner:August McLaughlin is the lucky winner of a $10 Starbucks card – send your email and mailing address to jennyhansensmail (at) aol (dot) com. I’m going to see if I can get it transferred to you electronically. If not, I’ll mail it. (Of course I work in Torrance every Monday and Tuesday…just sayin, August!)

Subscriber Winner:Monique Liddle is the winner of one of Margie Lawson lecture packets. These packets are writing GOLD! Plus, Margie will be here two weeks from today so you can ask her groovy questions after browsing through it. You have all the same instructions on sending me an email as August (see above). 🙂

55 Responses to If You Can’t Find Anything in the New #Triberr, You’re In the Right Post! #AtoZchallenge

Jenny, I LOVE Triberr, when I remember to use it. You’re right. It’s only daunting to me at the moment because I use it in addition to rather than in place of other social media sources for my tribemates. There’s that, plus…

I’ve been remiss in keeping up with your Triberr training posts. I haven’t taken the time to get past the basics in my learning curve.

I’m missing opportunities to promote and read awesomeblogs. Yet, my Tribe keeps giving back to me. This is a situation where I’m not worthyis true.

I won’t promise I’ll correct all my ommissions today, but I will make Triberr Savvy a priority for April, oh wise and chiefly one.

Gloria, now that your #WANA112 course is over, it’s a good time to read through all 6 posts. Seriously, open Triberr in one tab and go through the posts in another. They should give you most of what you need.

I LOVE Triberr. However, I admit to being seriously confused when the changes occurred. The one weird thing I’ve noticed is that when I change the tweet wording, the blog post link goes away. I don’t see it on the edited tweet. If I refresh the page, it comes back. I have no idea why.

Thanks for the information about the comments and other features. I didn’t know that! Still learning. Always learning. 😉

Julie, I hit “Refresh” at the top of the Tribal Stream page ALL THE TIME. It is the button I hit more than anything else since the changes. There’s a few comments where the Refresh button will resolve the issue so read through the comments. 🙂

Jenny, this is SO helpful! I opened Triberr in another tab and kept going back and forth from here to there to look at everything in my account that you laid out here. I guess I’m under-utilizing Triberr, because my Karma score and other things are so low. Plus I’m only in one tribe.

Ooooh, you are a SMART girl!!! Try going to your Setting, then to Badge Settings and hitting the Update button. Sometimes the badge stats just need to be re-calculated. I Update mine every few weeks. 🙂

When I first started Tribber, I loved it. But with all the changes, I now pretty much hate it. It is now so unreliable with the tweeting that I have to go to the actual posts and tweet from there. So, then what is the point of Tribber? I approve posts and they just sit in my tribal stream for days. The latest thing is that now every time I click approve, the internet shuts down. Special. It only happens with Tribber, so I don’t think it’s a problem with my internet. The other downside is that I don’t see any benefit to the changes. Sure the box looks different, but it’s not any better looking, just different. And Tribber definitely doesn’t save me time with all the funky issues it has. I’m about to bail on it and support my tribe by going to their posts.

Emma, have you sent up a bonfire or asked anyone for help? I just tweeted the Triberr guys to pop over here and address your issues. If you’ve reached out and gotten no relief, I understand your wish to bail. Otherwise, sit tight for a day or two and we’ll see if we can get your issue resolved. Pretty please?!!

No social media tool is perfect. I really do think that it’s all about the way we use it. I absolutely love Triberr. Not only has it increased the traffic to my blog, but more importantly, it’s increased my ability to support others because I can do it more quickly. I also have found that I’m able to comment on more blogs because of the way Triberr is set up.

I like Triberr, for the most part. It does cut down on time, and I have seen an influx of readers to my my blog. I’m getting used to the changes, although I like the old style where it gave the Tweet intervals each time I approved.

That said, your point about keep social media social is key. It seems a lot harder to find a conversation on Twitter these days, because everyone is on Triberr and tweeting links. Sometimes it’s hard to see through all that. That’s my only real complaint about it.

And right now, it would appear that the posts I approved this morning are not going through. They’ve left my stream, but I haven’t seen them on Twitter yet. This has happened a few times to myself and others. Very frustrating!

That’s a valid complaint, Stacy. It’s up to us to change it by starting up more conversations and including hashtags.

It is so easy to hang in the forums where we’re comfortable – DM discussions and our Facebook groups. It’s much harder to go out and engage total strangers, but I think doing that at least every day or two, is how we keep conversation going.

For the most part I love Triberr. I get a little overwhelmed with keeping up with the TY’s for the tweets however. And I’m completely with you on missing “…the feature that showed how many hits I got for each person’s post and vice-versa.”

Raelyn, most of the tribes discuss what acceptable “thank you etiquette” is for the tribe. Some of my tribes have said “Don’t thank me – let’s just tweet each other.” Some still want the TY’s. Some people must do it – some hate it.

I send out TY’s every few days. It was killing me to keep up with it every day. That being said, if someone sends a really creative tweet that makes me smile, I generally thank them right away. 🙂

Hi Jenny –
Thank you so much for the win! It made my day 🙂 !!!
I have to say that I do not know much about Triberr other than you need an invitation to join. Is this still true or am I thinking of something else? I will read your past posts on Triberr – thanks for including them in this blog post. It does sound interesting, though.

I’m so glad, Monique. I use Random.org to pick winners so I get as excited as everybody else. 🙂

You no longer need an invite to get into Triberr, but there’s no cost to invite a new person so don’t join – just ask one of your peeps to invite you. If you join yourself, EVERYONE has to pay 15 bones to put you in their tribe. (That last statement will make sense after you read Part 5!)

You need to use your Refresh button at the top of the Tribal Stream window, David. Also, there is a trick where you click it 3 times to clear out the debris (called “emptying cache”). Try that before you get despondent. Also, make sure that you’ve set up your Triberr account correctly.

Reetta, I always believe “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” To me, social media is about taking baby steps until you’re comfy at one level, then moving on and doing the same with the next thing, and the next. If your current level of sharing is cozy and your blog and social media platforms are growing at a rate you like, you can wait on the Triberr thing.

When you want to ramp it up (Triberr usually doubles your blog hits), we’ll all be here. 🙂

Glad you stay on top of this stuff, Jen. I’m still using this media. Just haven’t had the time to even write lately but I’m marking this blog down so that when I am ready, I’ll have the how-tos in terms I can actually understand.
Your hopelessly non-techie crit partner, Sharla

You are the bomb, Jenny. So much so, I pulled out that phrase I use maybe once per year? LOL Thanks so much for the incredibly resourceful post—another one worth bookmarking—and holy cow, the Starbucks card! Off to figure out where Torrance is… 😉 Hope you’re having a great!

While I can see why so many people use it and love it, I just can’t seem to like it the way others do. For one, whenever I see Triberr links shared on my Twitter feed, they seem to be the same five to 10 links shared over and over. I don’t know if people are actually reading the blogs they are sharing, or just sharing because they selected to share that person’s blog through Triberr.

I want to read a blog that you thoroughly enjoyed, not a blog that you just selected to share any time it’s updated. No offense to anyone, but not all blog posts are equal. We all have really good ones, and so-so ones and even bad ones. If it’s a great post, then wonderful! I’ll read it. If it’s just a meme, there’s no reason to share unless it made you laugh or had something interesting to say. Maybe that’s just me.

The other reason I don’t like Triberr has to do with my location. I live in Japan, so usually, my Twitter stream is pretty quiet in the afternoons because it’s night time in the US. Now, though, ALL I see in the afternoons are links shared from Triberr. Again, it’s the same set of links over and over, and it just feels like spam.

If you’re not awake, you shouldn’t be spamming Twitter with links. If Triberr could set a time frame for sharing, instead of people selecting to share every 30min or every hour, I’d be A LOT happier.

I LOVE this comment! First of all, I appreciate that you took time to write it. Second of all, I like to hear some dissenting viewpoints here and there – I usually learn from them. Last and most important, I believe it’s important to share those posts you feel strongly about, or at least target them to a specific audience that will feel strongly about them.

* I very rarely send out a post without changing the hashtags for this reason.
* I can’t put appropriate hashtags unless I read the post.
* Just tweeting and never reading makes us that which we despise (a bot).

I can’t say that I’ve *never* sent a post that I haven’t fully read (if it’s someone I trust implicitly, I skim) but I don’t agree with just being a mindless tweeter.

I love the sound of this!! Is that so embarrassing that I’ve never heard of triberr until just now!! Is this Kristen mywana? I totally want to do this, but here’s where I’m confused. In lesson #2 you talk about set up, but prior to that you talk about being invited. So, (remember, I’m blonde, too) I think that means I can set up my own tribe and invite people to join, but to be in someone else’s tribe they have to invite me? Have I got it? Lots of traffic on my blog today coming from yours – thank you!

This IS Kristen #myWANA. It looks like I need to take a few of you under my wing. Before you set up your tribe, send me and email and I’ll do some of this off-line. If Donna (comment below) keeps wanting to put her eye out, I’ll grab her too.

Ughh, guess I’ll need to spend time figuring this out. Seems too complicated. I got on and approve people’s posts but mine dont have an RSS or something. I just see a yellow triangle. None of my posts are in a stream. thought I added an RSS but arghhh! I dont have the window like you do at all up top! Very frustrating and spend time futzing around in it to no avail.. Is this really a needed thing?

Donna, look in your upper right hand corner (under your photo) – it will show a warning that you need to set up your RSS feed. If you click on it, it will walk you through the process. Your RSS feed will read:

Thanks Jenny. I did have the RSS feed in but whenever I click on my posts it says its unassigned and i need to assign it so guess need to do manually. Also , went into tribe settings and added it there. I dont see my posts in the tribal stream, I assume because they are mine? I need to find time to do the training, yes. Add to the list! 🙂

I am sure I’m underutilizing Triberr. I noticed the mention of hitting refresh. Should I be doing that regularly?
I am still on the fence about Triberr. It definitely saves tweeting time, but at the same time it’s cut down on my socializing because I feel like once I read and approve I’m “done” with Twitter for the day. So then I have to make more time to go be social.
Also, when I add hashtags they all end up right after the title instead of at the end. Is there a way to change that? Oh and if that is a dumb question, remember I’m blonde too! 🙂

I have a love/hate with Triberr. When it works, it’s great. When there’s a glitch, it stinks.

One of the more frustrating glitches I’ve experienced is that my Triberr tweets won’t tweet unless I close out the Triberr window in my browser. If I return to Triberr to check for new blogs to tweet, it pauses my tweet stream. If I forget to close the Triberr window, my tweet stream stays paused. I wish I could figure out a way to fix this.

A feature I wish Triberr had: A way to set a time for the stream to start running. IOW, I’d like to be able to go into Triberr at 8:00 a.m. and approve tweets, but set the stream to start running at, say, 10:30 a.m.

All complaints and wishes aside, Triberr is cool enough for me to keep using it. There is a learning curve, but once I learned the ins and outs my blog tweeting got faster. The one drawback I’ve noticed is that I don’t comment on as many blogs as I did before I started using Triberr. I tell myself I’m going to visit “later” and then forget. 😀

Thanks for the great blog, Jenny. I always love your technical analysis of things. 😀

Jenny to the rescue! I’ve avoided signing into Triberr (Tribe-grrrr, I’ve been calling it) for over a week because I was so frustrated. But I agree, although not a subsitute for interaction, it does help us help our people. Didn’t know about the self-hosted WordPress plugin, off to check it out. Thanks!

Great follow-up post on the changes, Jenny! Question: How do we now see all of the posts in our stream? I sort it most recent first, but seems like I’m still missing posts. Is there a way to change pages to see the rest?